Notre Dame vs. Marquette Preview
MILWAUKEE, WI (AP) – There may be no better place for Notre Dame to try to get its first Big East road victory of the season than where it got its last one.
The 14th-ranked Fighting Irish will try to win at Marquette for the second straight season Monday night as they seek their first 4-1 conference start in six seasons.
Notre Dame (14-2, 3-1) improved to 11-0 at home with a 76-61 victory over St. John’s on Saturday, but senior guard Ben Hansbrough feels the Irish need to improve in several areas to get a Big East road win.
Current college basketball odds and oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGlobal.com have made Marquette -3 point spread favorites for Monday’s game against Notre Dame. Current college basketball public betting information shows that 60% of more than 213 bets for this game have been placed on Notre Dame +3.
“When you go on the road you really have to be ready to handle pressure, and be ready to rebound and defend because that is how you win on the road,” he said. “We are going to have to be at our best in those areas if we want to win.”
Hansbrough has played well in the team’s two straight victories, scoring 21 and played the entire game in a 73-70 win over No. 8 Connecticut last Monday and posting a career-high 26 points Saturday.
“He sets a great tone for us because of his strong personality of defending and he truly takes pride in that,” coach Mike Brey said. “He’s not only typically playing the whole game for us, but he’s scoring and going for the jugular on teams to put them away.”
Those games followed a subpar performance from Hansbrough in Notre Dame’s conference road opener, a 12-point, 5-of-13 shooting effort in a 70-58 loss New Year’s Day.
Hansbrough will also try to fare better than he did in a 63-60 overtime victory at Marquette on March 6, when he shot 1 of 6 and scored four points. Tim Abromaitis scored 18 for Notre Dame and Carleton Scott had 14 points, 13 boards and the tying 3-pointer that forced the extra period.
The Irish are without Scott, who could miss a month with a partial tear of his left hamstring. The team leader with 25 blocks, Scott sat out the last two games.
Notre Dame was fine without him Saturday, limiting the Red Storm to 38.2 percent shooting.
“I’m pleasantly surprised that we are still defending well without Carleton in there,” Brey said. “He anchors us back there while also giving us some blocked shots.”
Marquette (11-5, 2-1) fell to 0-4 against Top 25 opponents with an 89-81 loss at No. 5 Pittsburgh on Saturday. Darius Johnson-Odom scored 20 points and Dwight Buycks added 19.
The game was lost on the defensive end as the Panthers shot 60.0 percent, becoming the second opponent in nine seasons to reach that number against the Golden Eagles.
“Coming into today they were averaging six 3-pointers a game and today they made 10, we never ran them off their lines,” coach Buzz Williams said.
Marquette ranks last in the Big East in 3-point field-goal percentage defense at 38.5. While Pitt is first in the Big East in 3-point shooting at 39.6 percent, Notre Dame is not far behind at 37.7.
Johnson-Odom is one of two Big East players to score at least 20 in every conference game, averaging 23.2 in his three.
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